Can Mental Health Care Reduce Gun Violence?

Introduction

Susan Walsh/Associated PressPresident Obama greeted Grant Fritz and other children who to wrote him about gun control on Wednesday when he announced proposals to reduce gun violence.

In the days after 20 children and four adults were shot dead in a Connecticut school, calls by gun control opponents for a focus on mental health care were seen as a diversionary tactic to avoid legislation limiting America’s arsenal. But elements of both President’s Obama’s proposals to address gun violence and new laws on the issue in New York deal with mental health care. Some are widely welcomed, some are more contentious.

But can changes in the American mental health system reduce gun violence without creating more problems?